Ministry secures funding for urban management project

The Ministry of Local Government and Rural Development has secured a 40-million euro funding from the African Development Bank (AfDB) to implement the Ghana Urban Management Pilot Project (GUMPP) in four major cities, namely, Kumasi, Sekondi-Takoradi, Tamale and Ho, for the provision of infrastructure facilities.

Under the GUMMP, the ministry will also facilitate the street-naming and structural plans for Ho and Tamale.

The sector Minister, Mr Akwasi Opong-Fosu, announced this in Accra when his ministry took its turn at the meet-the-press series yesterday.

He said the project would also ensure property rating and the installation of a revenue mobilisation software in Ho, Kumasi, Tamale and Sekondi-Takoradi

According to him, local plans and schemes would also be prepared for Kumasi and Takoradi to guide growth and development. The Bus Rapid Transit

The minister announced that the Greater Accra Passenger Transport Executive (GAPTE) has been established and registered as a company limited by guarantee to coordinate the roll out of the Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) pilot B in Accra.

The GAPTE, he stated, had signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the Ghana Private Road Transport Union (GPRTU) and other transport associations to operationalise the BRT on the Accra (Tudu)-Amasaman corridor.

“Initial discussions have been held with financial institutions on the funding arrangements for the purchase of about 85 buses for use on the corridor. Functional speculations of the buses have been agreed upon and about three bus manufacturing companies have expressed interest to supply the buses,” Mr Opong-Fosu said. Rural Development

He stated that in order to adopt a coordinated and systematic approach towards rural development, the ministry had initiated a process leading to the formulation of a comprehensive rural development policy that would guide the development of the country’s rural communities.

He said the formulation of the policy was in collaboration with the Bureau of Integrated Rural Development (BIRD) of the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST) and mentioned the Ghana School Feeding Programme (GSFP) and the Ghana Social Opportunities project as some of the strategic interventions of the policy. School feeding

Mr Opong-Fosu asserted that the GSFP had been one of the biggest social intervention programmes in the country, and that about 1.7 million pupils were currently benefiting from the programme nationwide.

He said the programme had expanded over the years to cover all metropolitan, municipal and district assemblies (MMDAs) and currently the number of beneficiary schools was 4,209.